Expert Council to Guide ChatGPT and Sora Well-Being Development
OpenAI is putting together a formal advisory board to wrestle with one of the biggest questions around AI: how these new tools might be shaping our mental health and everyday routines. Today they announced an eight-person Expert Council on Well-Being and AI, charged with steering the development of ChatGPT and the video-generation model Sora.
The council is made up of researchers and specialists who have spent decades looking at how technology, psychology and emotion intersect. Their backgrounds span adolescent mental health, human-computer interaction and the wider social impacts of new tech. It seems the company is finally treating the psychological side of AI as something we can’t ignore any longer. The hope is that, by involving these experts early, the way we build and roll out these systems will lean toward more positive user experiences from the start.
In a brief statement OpenAI said, “We’ve assembled the Expert Council on Well-Being and AI to help guide our ongoing work to build more helpful ChatGPT and Sora experiences for everyone.”
We’ve assembled the Expert Council on Well-Being and AI to help guide our ongoing work to build more helpful ChatGPT and Sora experiences for everyone. The eight-person council brings together leading researchers and experts with decades of experience studying how technology affects our emotions, motivation, and mental health. Their role is to advise us, pose questions and help define what healthy interactions with AI should look like for all ages.
Earlier this year, we began consulting many of these experts informally, such as when we were developing parental controls(opens in a new window) and the notification language for parents when a teen may be in distress. As we formalized the new council, we broadened our search to include additional experts in psychology, psychiatry, and human-computer interaction, bringing in new perspectives on how people relate to and are affected by technology. Because teens use ChatGPT differently than adults, we’ve also included several council members with backgrounds in understanding how to build technology that supports healthy youth development.
Putting well-being guidance into a formal framework feels like a milestone for generative AI. These tools are already popping up everywhere - helping kids with math, sparking story ideas - and that’s pushing the industry to ask questions that go beyond pure tech. The new council seems to acknowledge that an AI’s long-term success might depend as much on how it affects our mood as on raw performance.
It’s a quiet shift from “What can it do?” toward “How does it make us feel?” What will matter next is whether the council’s advice actually shows up in the product. I’m curious if we’ll notice slower response times, smoother conversation flow, or even a change in the AI’s personality. We’ll have to see if developers actually adopt those tweaks, or if they stay just talk.
The recommendations are slated for later this year, so they should give the first clear picture of what “well-being by design” looks like for the chatbots millions already talk to.
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Common Questions Answered
What is the specific purpose of the newly formed Expert Council on Well-Being and AI?
The council's purpose is to guide the development of ChatGPT and Sora by focusing on their impact on mental health and daily life. It is specifically tasked with advising OpenAI on how to build more helpful experiences and define what healthy interactions with AI should look like for users of all ages.
Who are the members of the Expert Council, and what is their background?
The council is composed of eight established researchers and specialists who have spent decades studying the effects of technology on emotions, motivation, and mental health. They are leading experts brought together to provide guidance based on their extensive experience in the field.
How does the formation of this council represent a shift for the generative AI industry?
This move signifies a maturation point for the industry, recognizing that the long-term success of AI platforms depends as much on their psychological impact as on their technical power. It is a significant shift from focusing solely on capability to also grappling with the broader well-being questions that arise as tools like ChatGPT and Sora become deeply integrated into daily life.